Low Carb Hiyashi Chuka

Hiyashi Chuka (冷やし中華) is Japanese cold ramen with colourful toppings. This shortcut low carb hiyashi chuka is a 10-minute recipe to enjoy my favourite Japanese cold noodles without guilt. I am on a pre-holiday season diet so I will revive my habit to eat one low carb meal a day. Also, since I now have limited time to make my daily meals, my cooking is now more focused on shortcuts and efficiency. This recipe is also great for meal prep – you can make an extra serving (sauce separate) and chill in a covered bowl container in the fridge overnight. You will have an instant pretty hiyashi chuka meal the next day!

Related Recipe:

• Low Carb Bibim Guksu

See Also:

• Hiyashi Chuka (Japanese Chilled Ramen Noodles)
• Low Carb Tom Yum Shrimp Shirataki Noodles
• Low Carb Air Fryer Margherita Pizza
• Bacon Spinach “Spaghetti” (Konjac Noodles)

If you have the good fortune of not needing to eat low carb (lucky you!), replace the shirataki noodles used in this recipe for fresh or dried ramen or udon noodles.

STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS (LOW CARB HIYASHI CHUKA)

Step 1: Make the short cut sauce

One day I had a rare eureka moment when I was looking at the list of ingredients for hiyashi chuka. What if I combine tsuyu (soba noodle sauce) with sushi vinegar (which is rice vinegar + sugar + salt)? Wow the idea really worked! This combination closely resemble the taste of hiyashi chuka sauce and it only took a minute. From there you can add slight variations such as grated ginger, chilli oil or even roasted sesame sauce. It’s a really convenient shortcut if you already have both sauces in your pantry.

STEP 2: Prepare and assemble the noodles

• (1) As a low carb substitute for ramen noodles, I am using rice shirataki which is very low in calories. It resembles the look of fresh ramen noodles, so it is apt to use it for hiyashi chuka. If you can’t find this type of shirataki noodles, you can use regular white shirataki noodles.
• (2) Drain the liquid from the pouch and place the drained noodles in the pan. Fry it without any oil to remove excess moisture from the noodles. This extra step greatly improved the noodles ability to absorb the noodle sauce. Then chill the noodles with ice cubes or in the fridge.
• (3) Toppings – I am using reconstituted kelp (wakame), ready-to-eat tamagoyaki & crab sticks (bought from Donki as a short cut), cherry tomatoes and cucumber. They took less than 5 minutes to prepare. Chill them in the fridge until ready to serve.
• (4) Assemble everything together with the prepared noodles in the middle of the plate. Arrange all the toppings (including a generous scoop of flying fish for a crunchy texture). Serve with the chilled sauce by the side.

STEP 3: Serve

Pour the sauce over the noodles, mix well and enjoy!

Print

Shortcut Low Carb Hiyashi Chuka Recipe

If you have the good fortune of not needing to eat low carb (lucky you!), just replace the rice shirataki noodles in this recipe with one bundle of fresh/dried ramen or udon – cook the boiling waters in boiling water and rinse them under running tap water before use.

You can replace the toppings in this recipe with any seasonal available ingredients – such as ham, capsicum, boiled egg, pea shoots, boiled shrimps, carrot, purple cabbage etc.

Check out the ingredients and step-by-step photos on the previous page.

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 8 mins

Cook Time: 2 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 pouch (drained weight 200g) rice shirataki noodles (aka konjac/Japanese yam noodles)

Shortcut Noodle Sauce
(adjust to taste as different brands vary in taste)

• 1 tbsp soba sauce (tsuyu)
• 1 tbsp sushi vinegar
• 2 tbsp water

Noodle Toppings

• 1 tsp dried kelp (wakame) soaked in water for 5 mins, squeeze out excess water
• 30g tamagoyaki (store-bought) cut to bite-sized pieces (or one boiled egg, halved)
• 4-5 Japanese crab sticks shred to smaller pieces if preferred
• 1/4 Japanese cucumber thinly shredded
• 4 cherry tomatoes halved (or half tomato, cut to wedges)
• 1 heaped tbsp tobikko (flying fish roe) optional; gives a nice crunch to the noodles

Directions:

1. Prepare toppings ingredients and chill them in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Prepare shirataki noodles. Drain the liquid from the pouch. Fry the noodles in a non-oiled pan on medium heat until dry. Cling wrap the noodles and chill them with ice cubes or in the fridge.
3. Make noodle sauce. Combine soba sauce, sushi vinegar and water in a small serving cup. Stir to mix well and season to taste. Chill the sauce in the fridge.
4. Assemble hiyashi chuka. Place prepared shirataki noodle on a serving plate. Arrange the toppings around the noodles and garnish with spring onions. Serve with the chilled noodle sauce at the side.
5. To eat, pour the sauce over the noodles, mix well and enjoy! This recipe is also perfect for meal prep – you can make an extra serving (sauce separate) in covered bowl container and keep in the fridge overnight. You will have an instant hiyashi chuka meal the next day.

Cooking Note:

1. I’m using shirataki rice noodles which contains 10 calories per 100g. You can substitute with any variant of shirataki (including the zero-calorie type) or other low carb pasta for this recipe.
2. If you want to make the noodle sauce from scratch, check out the recipe here.
3. If you want to make tamagoyaki from scratch, check out the recipe here.

Ingredients Used: cherry tomato • crab stick • cucumber • shirataki • soba sauce • spring onion • sushi vinegar • tamagoyaki • tobikko